Stefan Persson

There are far to many brilliant entrepreneurs today that are more interested in making a quick exit than to stick with their idea and keep developing it. I find that deeply disheartening.

Stefan Persson

Trying to cut costs by reducing your advertising budget is as crazy as expecting to save time by turning the clock off.

Stefan Persson

To be a successful entrepreneur you need to be creative, impatient, and have a strong knack for delegating choirs that are your weaknesses to others.

Stefan Persson

Being a great entrepreneur is a talent to a certain extent. You can become a good piano player by practising, but to be truly great you have to have the talent as well.

Stefan Persson

When I took over, my father moved to England in order to give me the necessary space. Today I don´t have any oporational responsibilities left. But I try to stay up to date as to what is going on and how we are doing. I just hope I don´t get in the way of the process in any way.

Stefan Persson

We don´t look for diplomas when we are hiring. Instead we are looking for certain personality traits and we get a lot of our management material from our own stores. We want individuals that have a passion for retail in general and H&M in particular. We want them to be team players. We are looking for individuals that are highly driven, yet have an empathic ability and don´t have any prestige.

Stefan Persson

Some leaders wait too long before they retire, and others put the young guns in control too early. It´s a difficult balancing act if there ever was one.

Stefan Persson

Every time we open a new store that´s a major event for us. It´s like a big show. It doesn´t matter if it is in a small town like Avesta or a bigger city like Geneva.

Stefan Persson

There have certainly been difficult periods in the history of our company. But none of them really posed a big threat to our existance. Our expansion into Gremany in the 80`s was a big question mark. It didn´t pan out and the board of directors got cold feet. But we stuck with it and it proved to be a great call. Today Germany represents some 23 % of total company sales and is the biggest market of the H&M corporation.

Stefan Persson

There are so many people depending on us around the world that we must take our responsibility as a company each day.

Stefan Persson

Some of the brands and concepts we have made over the years have certainly proved to be anything but successful. And yet those efforts proved to be very beneficial in the long run. Some of the work and effort we put into those early failures ultimately led to the creation of several successful successors and some of our big-time triumphs.

Stefan Persson

The government needs to pay attention to all those who are running an enterprise in our country. The enterprises of a country are not to be considered just a marginal group of voters. It´s the enterprises of a country that are the very foundation of all tax revenues. Those tax revenues are then redistributed and shared by the whole society.

Stefan Persson

I guess it´s alright. Although there are times when I reflect on the fact that we are living in a country with very high taxes. But me and my family doesn´t complain. We live in Sweden and we want to do our part. I don´t think that your will become a happier person by moving from one country to the other simply for tax reasons.

Stefan Persson